Melody of Blood and Night

Eight

Night had fallen by the time Aedlyn nipped out of the damp room, clutching the book in her right hand after the stony double doors had miraculously swung open. She stalked through the hallways, teeming with apprentices roaming about freely after their days end.

Whispers and gasps of surprise followed her as they moved out of her way. They were afraid of her. She couldnt blame them either, as she strode towards Ghislaines room, her mouth pressed into a hard, unforgiving line, looking every inch the vicious bitch they believed her to be.

She flung open the heavy doors and walked inside. Both the Crown Prince and Caelan turned to her as she entered. "Aedlyn..." Caelan breathed and began to move towards her but came to a halt after taking one swift look at her face.

Her eyes were trained on the Vampyress standing at the window, behind the mahogany desk, gazing onto the moonlit shores of the Lake, with her back turned to Aedlyn, whose icy stare could freeze the sun. Ghislaine acknowledged her with a mere glance over her shoulder.

The Vampyress sauntered to the entrance of her adjoined chamber before opening its doors and disappearing inside. Aedlyn's demeanour darkened further as she climbed the stairs to the desk and followed the Vampyress, ignoring the two men completely, who exchanged anxious looks with each other before trailing her inside.

They watched curiously as she dropped an ancient book onto the long, antique rosewood table present in the spacious bedroom with a loud thud.

"Is that?" Zaivian began as he beheld the book, slack-jawed. He felt giddy with excitement, like a child in front of a big present waiting to be opened. His widened eyes snapped up to meet Aedlyns. "A Book of Records!?" he completed, his voice slightly raised.

"Yes."

"Of Caestros?" Zavian inquired excitedly.

"Seems like it," Aedlyn confirmed darkly, her eyes still fixed on the Vampyress, who sat with her legs crossed over one another in one of the plush dining chairs in the centre of the table. He could barely contain his excitement.

He had spent his entire childhood, dreaming of growing up to be a historian or a scribe and etch all the greatest tales of Caestros into linen sheets, bound in hard leather.

He wondered what secrets of history were stowed in between its pages, yearned to know which piece of paper held a forgotten hero's blood or the exact page that was forged upon a noble King's birth.

His fingers itched to turn the books every yellowed page, to see what secrets lay undiscovered, bound by the books russet, cracking leather.

"Did the book show you anything? Was it the coronation of Queen Asena? Was she truly a werewolf? Or maybe the execution of the Thirteenth High Mage, Raziel?" Zaivian blurted excitedly, his eyes gleaming like two bright Amethysts.

"Am I the only one who doesnt know what he is talking about?" Caelan interjected.

"Yes" The women turned to him and replied in unison before returning to staring each other down while the Crown Prince gazed at the dusty tome with stars in his eyes.

"Well? Is someone going to explain what is happening? What in the world is a Book of Records!? Some kind of a secret ledger? Ghislaine has a lot of them." Caelan inquired.

The Prince turned to him with a raised eyebrow but began to explain everything nonetheless, with one arm extended towards the archaic tome and the air of a scholar about him, "A Book of Records is like the brain, if you would, and the body it belongs to, is the soil it is bound to. Therefore, just as our mind knows what goes on in any and every part of our body, so does the book. The only difference is that it only records the things have a historical significance to Caestros."